impossibilia-8-octubre-2014

It is an apparently realistic portrait, with the protagonist looking neither strange nor particularly“dicult”; his hair is neatly combed and he is wearing a long-sleved shirt, a pair of dark trousers and beltand a watch on his right wrist. His position is the same as the cat’s on the front cover, literaly sunk in theloral paterned armchair. On closer inspection, yet, the picture turns out to be far from reasuring for aseries of reasons. First of al, Peter’s look is not relaxed, his eyes are ixed in the distance with a slightlyfurowed brow. He is evidently thinking and the seting of his daydreaming can be easily spoted on the lefthand side of the picture, where a snowy mountain unrealisticaly lurks from behind the armchair. In hishand he is holding the coat hanger he intends to use to come down from that mountain sliding on “alength of wire stretched tight betwen the pine tres” (McEwan, 1994: 10). he picture, then, immediatelyhighlights the inextricable intermingling of reality and daydreaming that is the very key to Peter’sexperience. At the same time, it also overtly points to another central concern of McEwan’s book, theunbalanced relationship betwen childhood and adulthood, here symbolized by Peter’s father menacinglystanding on the back of the armchair where he climbs to ix some Christmas decorations. homas Fortune’slooming over Peter’s head is a clear metaphor for the adult’s atitude towards the child, who is alwaysexpected to conform to the grown-ups’ outlooks, as Peter’s sombre clothes sem to further indicate. heclosing of this introductory chapter, however, appears to somehow reasert the power of fantasy thanks tothre tiny pictures –a cloud, a glitering eye, and a closed mouth– that obliquely refer to the protagonist’scharacter and atitude (his head constantly among the clouds, his eye gleamingly lost in some fantasy, andFerari, Roberta. “Metamorphosis of a genre: he Daydreamer by Ian McEwan”. Imposibilia Nº8, Págs. 46-63 (Octubre 2014)Artículo recibido el 29/07/2014 – Aceptado el 10/09/2014 – Publicado el 30/10/2014.57